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Note the sportsmanship infraction may be used liberally, and any unsportsmanlike conduct on the forums, in #wcop / #pokemon / any of the semiofficial tier channels, or in opposing wcop team channels (I won't infract for you being a dick in your own wcop team channel unless the situation is so extreme I feel I absolutely have to make an exception (consider basically any masterclass interaction ever)), will be grounds for an infraction. We encourage you to play semi-aggressively, but don't be a masterclass.

~ Aldaron

On... Scheduling Matches

I'm sure plenty of you have come across coin flipping / who to activity drama while scheduling matches. I'm here to reduce the arbitrary element associated with some of these decisions. It is entirely your decision to adhere to these STRONG RECOMMENDATIONS, but note that if you choose not to, I'll most likely ignore any pleading from your end and default you to a coin flip, regardless of what you claim is your Discord or forum activity. By signing up for this tournament, you are agreeing to this condition, that adhering to what I outline will protect you from coinflips / activity and that not adhering to it will subject you to coinflips / activity regardless of your proposed justification.
YOU MUST ACTIVATE YOUR VM WALL IF YOU WISH TO PLAY IN THIS TOURNAMENT. THIS IS HOW ALL OFFICIAL SCHEDULING WILL BE HANDLED.

Once that round's thread is posted, you have up to 48 hours to contact your opponent ON HIS VM WALL and mention your timezone and exactly what dates, what time ranges you are available, and where you will battle. Note that the default accepted sim and server is the official server on Showdown. You must provide at least 3 different time ranges at least 48 hours from the timestamp of your message, with at least 2 that are 24-hours apart from each other. The minimum and maximum length for 1 time range is 30 minutes, and the minimum difference between the 3 required time ranges is 3 hours. If you give 3 time ranges that stick with this policy, you can give any additional time ranges at any time you please.

NOTE THAT THIS SCENARIO INVOLVES RESPONSE DYNAMICS; THERE IS SOMEONE WHO WILL CONTACT FIRST AND SOMEONE WHO RESPOND...THESE REQUIREMENTS ARE NOT FOR BOTH OF YOU TO ASSUME TO YOU CAN BE FIRST CONTACTS...WHOEVER CONTACTS FIRST IS THE FIRST, AND THE OTHER DEFAULTS TO THE RESPONDER. THIS SHOULD BE OBVIOUS BUT SOME OF YOU ARE DUMB.

Once your opponent has contacted you, you now have up until 72 hours after the round's thread has been posted (NOT after your opponent's message) to respond with times that are good for you. What this means is that if both of you spend the maximum time contacting and responding, you should have back and forth collaboration at a maximum of 72 hours after the round has been posted, with both parties given an additional 24 hours to prepare for the battle should it be scheduled as soon as required. If none of the opponent's proposed time ranges are good for you, you must respond with alternative time ranges.

The first opponent now has X hours to prepare for the battle (if the second opponent agreed to some time) or 24 hours to contact a TD if, for whatever reason, this second set of time ranges does not suit the first opponent. Note this should be an absolute last measure and that more often than not, the TDs will likely force one (or both) sides to sub out.

Once a time is agreed upon, please make a message on your opponent's vm wall between 10 minutes and 1 second before the agreed upon time and say you are ready to battle and then get to agreed upon location (regardless of whether or not your opponent sends you a response vm). Please protect yourself by making this message, as it makes decisions much easier. You will be required to be wait for your opponent for the duration of the time range.

If neither of you contact each other before 48 hours after the thread has been posted, you're both opening yourself up to a potential coin flip. If I look at the situation, I might just determine I'm going to sub both of you out, coin flip you, or whatever based on however I'm feeling at that moment. Don't leave yourself and your team vulnerable to this.

Just because at anytime one of the responders does not respond within the given range does not give you automatic activity win credentials. If they don't contact at all on your vm wall up until 48 hours before the end of the round (note, I'm not going to take Discord or sim messages as evidence due to how easily they can be doctored...so if you want to protect yourself, stick to the vm messages), then you obviously have activity win justification. Note to team captains, if one of your players does not contact all his opponents before 48 hours before the end of the round, I will FORCE a sub, no questions asked. You WILL contact your opponent in a timely manner. However, if they do contact you at all after the suggested response time and before 48 hours before the end of the round, you are required to respond before 24 hours before the end of the round with 2 1-hour time ranges at least 1 hour apart before the end of the round. The opponent, since he did not stick to the proposed response schedule, WILL BE REQUIRED TO PLAY AT ONE OF YOUR NEWLY SUGGESTED TIMES, so you have the advantage here. This obviously puts a bit of an emphasis on the last 48 hours of each round (as is standard operating procedure for most of our official team tournaments anyway), so I will try my best to keep the last 48 hours of the round as close to the majority of the weekend for as much of the world as I can.

If you follow all of these guidelines, you will a.) most likely get your match done with minimal issue or b.) protect yourself and your team from an undue coin flip or activity decision. Yes, I hate activity decisions in official tournaments. Yes, I will do my best to prevent activity decisions in the playoffs (the qualifying round is fair game however and I will have no problem issuing an activity call here), but don't push your luck.

Here is an example of how following this would work:

Round 1 thread is posted June 7, 2015 at 10:00PM. Its deadline is June 14, 2015 at 11:59PM. User A and User B are matched up. User A contacts User B on his vm wall on June 9, at 9:00 PM (47 hours after the thread was posted, so ok), and gives 4 time ranges: June 10, from 7:00-7:30 PM (22 hours after the timestamp of his message, which is only ok so long as at minimum 3 of the other proposed time ranges adhere to the requirements), June 11, from 9:00-9:30 PM (48 hours after the timestamp of his message, which is ok), June 12, from 6:00-6:30 PM (69 hours after timestamp of his message, so ok, but only 21 hours after the earliest time range that is 48 hours after the timestamp), and June 12, from 9:00-9:30 PM (72 hours after the timestamp, so ok, and 24 hours after a legal time range and 3 hours after another legal time range). The June 11 and both June 12 time ranges satisfy the requirements, so User A can propose his first June 10 time range as well. User B responds on June 10, at 8:00 PM (23 hours after User A contacted him, so ok), and picks June 11, at 9:00 PM to battle, which is ok because it is 24 hours after his own response.

You'll note I made most of my response ranges multiples of 24 hours, but also included 24 hours. This means I expect you to be able to check Smogon at least once a day. If that is not feasible, you put yourself at risk.

~ Aldaron

On "Self-KO Clause" and Ties:

Self-KO Clause is an antiquated concept that is not used in Smogon tournaments. The one exception to the rule is if the tournament is live (weekly Smogon Tour, Suspect Tours, etc.). For all standard tournaments here this rule does not exist. It Does Not Exist.

If both Pokemon faint simultaneously in DPP, ADV, GSC, or RBY, the game is ruled as a tie. Tied games do not count as played games in overall standings and will be expected to be replayed within the round's initial deadline. Similarly to this, tied games do not count towards the total number of games played in "best of X" series. In other words, if a tournament includes "Bo3" RBY, what is really being played is "first to two wins" RBY.

However, ties simply don't exist in later generations. The developers removed ties from BW and have not added them back since. There's a lot of inconsistency with the mechanics of their tiebreaking system but Smogon follows them to stay true to the cartridge. The main ones are listed below:

Note: The following list is for SM, XY, and BW, and not for DPP, ADV, GSC, or RBY

Disconnections and Timer
For information on our disconnection and timer rules, refer to this thread.

Tiebreaks:

If teams are in a position to move on and are tied for wins in Stage 1, points and bd in Stage 2 or just tie in the final match in Stage 3, a tiebreak Best-of-3 series will be played to determine which team advances. The first match will be standard SM OU, with each of the teams in the tiebreak picking another tier to be played. This tier can be another SM OU, and multiple SM OU matches can be played. However, as every team should only have to aim to draft 1 player for every other tier, no other tier can be repeated.

For Stage 1, if a tiebreak occurs, the team that had more wins in the head-to-head matchups will pick second. If the teams were tied in head-to-head, strength of schedule is used to determine the higher seed instead.

For Stage 2, largely the same metrics are used as for stage 1. The first denominator to determine the higher seed will be Stage 2's head-to-head matchup. If this resulted in a tie, the number of total wins from Stage 1 will be used. Should this also be the same, strength of schedule in Stage 2 is used.

For Stage 3, the team with the higher ranking in Stage 2 will be the higher seed. If this was identical, the number of total wins in Stage 1 is used. If this also results in a tie, the Stage 2 head-to-head matchup will break the tie. In case this fails, strength of schedule will be the fallback.

If, during any stage, all parameters listed here are tied, we will publicly use the !pick command on the Smogtours server to determine the higher seed.

Substitutions:

During Stage 1, subsitutions are allowed during each phase, and a player getting subbed in has to play all the remaining opponents of the player he is replacing. A player that has been subbed out during a phase may not be subbed into any other slot. Multiple substitutions may occur in the same slot. Of course, Phase 2 may use a different lineup than Phase 1, and substitutes will be "reset", meaning everyone on the bench can be subbed in once again. For Stage 2 and 3, substitutions work like they do in SPL.

Substitutions will be not be allowed in tiebreak series unless the hosts mandate it. However, since we prioritise games being played, we will consider extension requests so long as they're reasonable. We will also be reluctant to give activity wins to those who are clearly fishing for them.

Simulator:
Pokémon Showdown is the main simulator for this tournament, and Smogtours is the main server. If both players agree and there is a valid reason that a match cannot be played on Smogtours, it may be played on the main server as well.

IT'S FINK DUMBASS

Good luck Nagas, you guys had a pretty impressive run the past few weeks to get here, so I am hoping for a fun series. LGI Leviathans! Contacted GTG, hopefully our battle can have a bit less teenage rage than the 2012 ladder classics.

Banned deucer.

Imagine this Hikari, our team last year managed to get fucked over by nazis and then all of a sudden, the team loaded itself into semis like nothing rofl. Talk about a bounce-back, hope y’all win the tour.

I won't post individual shoutouts because we didn't win but I have some things to say regardless.

Thank you EmbCPT and Corporal Levi for being players I can always trust to perform. Kevin it took a bit to get going but you won when it started to matter, and I loved talking to you as always. To the rest of the bushmasters, thanks for trying your best even if it didn't work out.

I won't say I regretted managing because I learned to not do it again any time soon but it was definitely a worse experience than playing. Glad I got to spend another season with you TonyFlygon.

OU: Finchinator vs GaryTheGengar 55-45 - close game, mainly cuz finch has been underperforming and GTG has been the 2nd best R14 pick in either snake draft (because fireburn was r14?!?!). finch has the xp and building advantage though he might just stall so who cares, both are good players
OU: Lopunny Kicks vs Sacri' - i am indifferent to who wins this nor do i have enough of an opinion to put up numbers
OU: KingKdot vs SoulWind - 30-70 glad KKD is getting another chance after a meh R1. SW started off pretty poorly in stage 1 but has been doing noticeably better in stage 2... and its fkn soulwind
OU: Hiye vs craing ;_; - 90-10 lmfao rematch PLEASE Hiye win stupid ben needs to lose, prep for azu stall. hiye has looked so fkn good in stage 2, especially in his bkc and ciele games. i really dig this aggressive playmaker version of hiye and hope it lasts
DOU: MajorBowman vs Ezrael - 45-55 good DOU match, but ezrael has been playing far better though with odder team choices (imo)
UU: robjr vs Kory2600 - 60-40 godjr went from the 3nd(?) worst UU record in stage 1 to 5-4, which is impressive enough in itself i reckon. kory is a great player and i respect the way he builds, but is unproven to me in UU. at the end of the day its a UU match so whoever brings terrak will probably win
RU: KW vs Sam - 80-20 will probably ice punch an iapapa milotic or something
NU: Eternally vs Kushalos - 2nd and 3rd best NU players after god lax , idk which one is 2nd and which one is 3rd so u can figure that out for us now. actually excited to see this one
LC: OP vs Heysup - 48-52, idk, both are really similar but heysup has felt more on in stage 2 than OP and won when they played last time
Ubers: Garay oak vs Sharow-san - 60-40 garay has been rather good and bringing no nonsense teams all tourney. the sample size for sharow is small, but i think garay will play better like he has been doing all tourney

Banned deucer.

Dreaming of the #1 seed, waking up for a huge fucking L, it is what it is boys.

Speaking for myself, i had a lot of fun playing UU, even though i went negative and had to drop out because of my huge tilt after that fucking Diancie and then not simply not having the time to step back into a tier im not that comfortable with. I wish i couldve won some more games and i was already hyped for the planned NU comeback in the finals, alas.

The team enviroment wasn't really what you would say you would wish for, but besides some cancers I think we had a really really cool core and i am really glad having gotten to know some people i didn't know before. Especially col49 (even though i understand only half the words you use) TTG - The Vision (thanks for keeping our TDs away from cheating man) and EmbCPT (i absolutly love you and you're really my favorite player and i'll still shout GOAT at my screen whenever i see you on stream). Also Accelgor , we had a bit of a rough start and the tension was visible with every word we exchanged, but i think in the end i can say we got along pretty well and im really sad for you the score doesnt reflect what you should have deserved and are capable of, but that was just the beginning!

Really glad I got picked up with friends from before kevin and tony (lets win 1v1 world cup now oml).

Also huge thanks to didi, the mukkers, the DEN boys whomst cheered for me and everyone else who acts like i actually am a great player! means a lot to have guys you share your time with for quiet a long time now.

And at the end a special and probably unexpected shoutout to z0mOG : you seem to be cancers best friend but you always keep it clean and friendly, like a real good presence, keep it up and dont drift into the dark, it seems its very hard to get out of there.

Leru get the fucking trophy now (the maybe actual only clean "german")

WRAWN

Lake of Rage Leviathans (6) vs Lanakila Nagas (4)
OU: Finchinator [65] vs [35] GaryTheGengar - Better overall player, I feel like finch has been kinda predictable lately teambuilding-wise but I still think he is at some levels above. That said idr seeing GTG playing, wouldnt be surprised if he proves me wrong since I def dont know him but finch is solid anyway.
OU: Lopunny Kicks [40] vs [60] Sacri' - Imo sacri is one of the best sm players in the field, Lop has been doing decent and can take it but the latter has a higher ceiling. I hope sacri gets haxed tho, always funny watching his reactions.
OU: KingKdot [35] vs [65] SoulWind - Pathetic but is good at least, will take this one for sure IMO.
OU: Hiye [45] vs [55] craing ;_; - I always look forward to watch this user playing, I remember that I ranked him pretty high on PR bc I always feel like hes ready to play anyone at a really high level, and even after having a short break hes doing well so yeah hes good. Hiye is in a pretty good moment too, his offensive style matches up well against the current userbase (as seen by his record) but craing has this quality too, while barely doing missplays. Its really the match of the week for sure.
DOU: MajorBowman [60] vs [40] Ezrael - Going against bowman is always hard, even when hes sucking asses (which he is rn rip) bc hes just too solid and always has all the tools to do well and win games. Good luck friend, go ahead and take It.
UU: robjr [60] vs [40] Kory2600 - Better UU player I guess, or at least seems to be.
RU: KW [60] vs [40] Sam - I see a lot of myself on him when thinking back to when I started playing tours, except that I wasnt as toxic as him [aborto]. I had the offensive style that as I said matches up well vs the community (again, as seen by his record), had the metagame/teambuilding knowledge but had many downfalls when putting the triggers and usually didnt care about it either, while not being afraid to face anyone. When he learns how to balance his own style and improve the gameplan issues Im pretty sure he'll become one of the best lower tiers players.
NU: Eternally [55] vs [45] Kushalos - Ive not been watching NU by any way, but I feel like Eternally has learned with his last erratic :BKC: performances and is at his peak. I like Kush as player tho, he can def take this one too.
LC: OP [49] vs [51] Heysup- Classic matchup, gl both.
Ubers: Garay oak [60] vs [40] Sharow-san - Garay is a solid slam tiers player from what I remember while I have not seen many things from Sharow. I def dont watch ubers games anyway so maybe sharow is like the best player in the field and I just dont know It, who knows rofl.

LOIC stay loaded

We really started going downhill these past couple weeks and never recovered, idk what happened. But good run guys. Special shoutouts to Finchinator for working hard and SabellaShiba and ABR for helping out.